What is Ad Fontes?
Glossary
of Terms
Ad Fontes:
Ad fontes means “to the sources” in Latin. Rather than reading textbooks or commentaries or listening to lectures, it means reading original sources as much as is possible.
Why read the original text when we have summaries and commentaries? The better question is, “Why not?” Students, especially in subjects like history, philosophy, and literature, should not rely on others’ reports or summaries when original sources are available. To uphold this foundational tenet of classical Christian education — teaching kids how to think, not what to think — textbooks and commentaries must be relegated to the tools they are. No system of education can teach kids how to think while relying on textbooks, commentaries, and lectures.
In this spirit, many classical schools teach Latin, Greek, and sometimes Hebrew in order to facilitate reading documents in these languages. When this is not possible, classical schools use good unabridged translations of primary and secondary sources. This is why classical schools discourage reading only excerpts, summaries, or modern references when they could be looking to the classic ancient sources themselves.
No one puts it better than C.S. Lewis, who said:
I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about ‘isms’ and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. … The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator.